5 November, 2013-New York - Mr. Thomas Gass, the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs in UN DESA provided delegates with insightful remark on the post 2015 development agenda. The Assistant Secretary-General illustrated the importance of rethinking the post 2015 development agenda and how the ongoing process of UN reform provides an encouraging dynamic for the following 15 years. Those involved in the process should not refrain from a visionary approach to reach farther than the goals they have now set for themselves. Thomas Gass framed the topic for the following panel discussion.

The Panel discussion elaborated the topic of “Advancing the governance for sustainable development” and was chaired by Ms. Yvonne Lodico, head of the UNITAR office. As part of the panel, Mr. Navid Hanif, Director of the office of ECOSOC Support and Coordination; Pio Wennubst, Minister of the Permanent Mission of Switzerland and Kristinn Helgason, Chief of the Division for Social Policy and Development, UN DESA discussed how governance for sustainable development can be moved forward. Mr. Navid Hanif illustrated the working mechanisms of ECOSOC and how the ECOSOC reform contributes to a broader range of effectiveness and accountability within the UN system. Pio Wennubst shed light on the processes that unfolded in the preparation of the QCPR and pointed out which adoptions have to occur within the UN system to further change. Kristinn Helgason picked up the topic of the QCPR and highlighted the drivers of change within the process of UN reform.

Later, Raul Chandran, Senior Programme Officer at the Department of Field Support, illustrated how Civilian Capacity Building can be improved further. He provided delegates with a toolbox as a mixture of regional and cultural approaches which may be suited best to help civilians.

Kevin Summersgill from the UN Board of Auditorselaborated an external perspective on change and change management. Drawing from his wide experience as auditor, Mr. Summersgill shared his experiences regarding theory and findings from other organizations for planning change, gave delegates insights in recent lessons learned from the Board of Auditors and proceeded to show from where a process of planned change has to start.

During the following session Thomas Guerber, Deputy Permanent Representative from the Mission of Switzerland to the UN discussed with the panelists recent experiences in regard to change management from a wide range of speakers. Part of the panel were Kevin Summersgill as external actor, Ms. Fatemeh Ziai, Director of the Learning, Development and Human Resources Division in the Office of Human Resources Management and Uren Pillay, Officer-in-Charge, at the Department of Management, Enterprise Resource Planning Project as representatives from the Secretariat; as well as H.E. Stephanie Lee, the Deputy Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the UN and H.E. Oki Muli Grignon, Deputy Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN as representatives from Member States.